Question

I've found that ONLY writing meta descriptions does a little bit, but not much without on page content tweaks, internal linking, architecture, etc. Has anyone seen otherwise? Is my clients want to focus only on rewriting metas instead of other more whollistic approaches (which may include metas) something I should push back on or not? Trying to take a first principled approach. But they're the ones paying. So. ‍♂️

Answer 1

They will put it on you when they won't see the results. I think you should atleast talk to them about what they are missing.  

Answer 2

Meta descriptions have no direct impact on rankings.  

Comments

@boatload but they do affect CTR.  

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@maziar Minimally, yes. But again, I said they have no DIRECT impact on rankings. That could be a potential indirect impact, but frankly, CTR is nearly impossible to test.  

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@boatload no it isn't. Go to GSC and look at your ctr per keyword. Change the meta, then look again. Test complete.  

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@maziar you'd get more bang for your buck on ctr by improving the rankings.  

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@plunger you’d get more bang for your buck improving everything. If your writing sucks and doesn’t match what the searcher is looking for then they will just go past you. If you’re not ranking high enough but have amazing writing, no one will find you.  

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Both are a little right - here's a tip - if you have any PPC campaigns that have ad copy that has high CTR but not the right conversion - change the ad but use the copy in a description - has a good lift

Answer 3

Architecture is the one I always focus on to get best long term results.  

Answer 4

Why would people not write them out? It is certainly more appealing for the potential visitors to click your website with eye-catching page titles and meta descriptions rather than the ones generically created by Google which are grabbed from your pages.  

Comments

@dellinger289 I'm not arguing against that. But arbitrarily rewriting them just for the sake of thinking you can double ctr without considering everything else seems a little narrow sighted

Answer 5

Seems to miss the point on how to use ctr & bounce metrics. He's thinking vanity. I'm thinking real conversions, nailing categories, tripling traffic, making the site load faster, optimizing conversions, which also includes to his point rewriting descriptions and pages using ctr to figure out how to parse out topics and focus saliency, etc. I'd rather spend time doing instead of explaining. I guess it's on me to communicate what's going on big picture and what the ultimate goal is.  

Answer 6

A page needs to be already ranked at the top, or at least on the first page of serps for Meta description to start making sense. (Because no one would see it otherwise. :) ). Obviously, other factors influence the page to get there, and it is well known that MD has nothing to do with that. Why would Google read someone's description of the content, when it can read the actual thing and decided for itself. That being said, a lower-ranked results can perform better than a bit higher one, if it has significantly clearer and more catchy MD. MD can prove to be highly valuable for the final stages of the efforts to reach the top position. Indirectly, of course.